A record-setting storm lashed the U.K., France and Italy with heavy rains, powerful winds and flooding.
At least six people have died in severe flooding in Tuscany, central Italy and three in Portugal, bringing the death toll across Western Europe to 15.
Eugenio Giani, the president of Tuscany, announced a state of emergency on Friday, describing the situation as “really very serious”. It had been “a long and complex night for the entire regional civil protection system”, he said.
There had been fears the Arno River could flood the historic city of Florence after several nearby towns were swamped, but Giani said the high water point had passed at mid-morning without major incident.
Storm Ciaran, which follows on the heels of Storm Babet two weeks ago, was driven by a powerful jet stream that swept in from the Atlantic, unleashing heavy rain and furious winds that have already caused heavy flooding in Northern Ireland and parts of Britain.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that in addition to the death of truck driver, 15 people, including seven firefighters, had been injured. One person was seriously injured in the northern French town of Roubaix, he said.
About 1,300 people had to be relocated to campsites or shelters, and several houses were evacuated in the Finistere city of Brest after a crane fell, Darmanin said earlier on social media.
Several people were still missing in Tuscany and at least one in the north-eastern Veneto region, Italian authorities said. People were being evacuated from their homes in rubber dinghies in the Seano, Quarrata and Campi Bisenzio areas of Tuscany.
In Spain, at least 800 people around the coastal town of Gandia in Valencia were evacuated after a wildfire broke out and spread rapidly overnight amid record-breaking winds, officials said on Friday.
Storm Ciarán was a “bomb cyclone”, scientists have explained: unusual storms where explosive intensification leads to exceptionally strong winds. It was also unusual in producing both heavy rain and high winds over large areas.
